


Beneath the Bed

by LyraTerravale



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Halloween, M/M, Monster Under The Bed AU, Monsters, One Shot, Teeth, klance, not scary but halloweeny
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-28
Updated: 2017-10-28
Packaged: 2019-01-25 14:01:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,822
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12533172
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LyraTerravale/pseuds/LyraTerravale
Summary: Monster-under-the-bed Klance au, baby Keith's willing to fight anyone to prove something, even the supposed monster that has been causing trouble from under his bed.





	Beneath the Bed

**Author's Note:**

> A little Halloween one-shot i wrote that's klance based! Comments are appreciated and i'd love for some feedback. My tumblr is @freeklancer if you want to follow for more!

            Keith had never been afraid of things that go bump in the night, because the only thing he had ever met had a smothering smile and a lively laugh.

            It started when he was eight years old. Small things like toys and clothes being in a slightly different spot than Keith remembered leaving them. He tried to tell his dad, but the man only told him to be more mindful of where he left his things. Then Keith started waking up in the middle of the night to the sound of scratching. In the morning, he would find scratch marks on his bed posts. His father blamed him once again for the incident, and didn’t believe his claim that there was no way it was Keith’s fault.

            “My daddy told me that there’s monsters under bad little kids’ beds, but I’ve never seen one so I don’t believe him.” Pidge, an old childhood friend of Keith’s, exclaimed one day after hearing Keith’s dilemma. They were at the playground together and Pidge was currently swinging gleefully from the monkey bars.

            “A monster, huh?” Keith’s brow scrunched up as he scowled at the ground from where he sat atop the bright yellow slide. “Well if It is a monster, I’m going to fight him. I fought Lotor the fourth grader, and he wasn’t so tough.” Keith boasted proudly, thumbing his chest. Pidge rolled her eyes at the older boy.

            “Monsters aren’t real, dummy. Besides, if they were, you’d get your butt kicked.” Pidge swung to the next monkey bar as she spoke.

            “Would not!” Keith stood up and glared, arms crossed, at his friend.

            “Would to” Pidge teased, continuing her trek through the jungle gym.

            “I’ll prove it then! I’ll bring evidence that I can beat the monster.” Keith announced, a look of determination crossing his face. Pidge dropped from where she had been hanging, and proceeded to brush herself off. She looked up at the boy with an incredulous look.

            “If it’s even real.” She muttered.

            “Of course, he’s real! And I’m going to prove it.” Keith resolved. And shortly after their playdate, his dad took him home and he made his preparations.

            Keith’s dad kissed him goodnight and quietly shut the door. But Keith didn’t try to sleep. Instead he leaped out of the covers and ran to his closet. He pulled out his clunky, plastic armor from when he had dressed up as a knight the previous Halloween. The silver paint still shone as he slipped on the breastplate. Next, he pulled on his bright red bike helmet, and his favorite black, fingerless gloves that protected his knuckles when he punched things. Keith didn’t know what kind of monster it would be, so he couldn’t be too prepared. He settled himself facing his bed, and stared into the dark space just below it. And he waited. He waited and waited until his eyelids felt so heavy he thought they may fall off. The last thing Keith remembers was his vision blurring as he leaned back against his wall.

            _Thunk!_ A loud noise startled Keith awake as he slowly rose from his slouched position and looked around. He wasn’t alone. A tall, mess of limbs pulled itself out from underneath Keith’s bed. It was a boy, and he was rubbing his head intensely like he had just been hit, and muttering something unintelligible under his breath. Except it wasn’t a boy, or at least no kid Keith had ever seen before. The light from his main window was enough for Keith to take in the figure. Dark, smooth skin shone as the moonlight bounced off it. The stranger pulled his hand from his ruffled, brown hair as his eyes suddenly met Keith’s, and they both froze. Those eyes… they were deep blue and filled his entire sockets, not a trace of white in them. Black slits dilated as they met Keith’s own eyes. It wasn’t just his eyes that were strange, two dark blue horns curled out of his hair and pulled towards the back of his head, as well as a dark blue, spear-headed tail curled out behind him as he straightened, swishing back and forth.

            Keith frowned and stood up. He swallowed down any fear that was curling in his stomach and faced the boy at his full height. Unfortunately, the kid had a good few inches on Keith. The stranger’s eyes widened and he tilted his head, curiously.

            “I’m not scared of you, monster.” Keith proclaimed. His hands curling to fists at his side as he readied himself to be attacked. The monster looked Keith up and down, as if taking him in.

            “Why not? I’m the most scary monster there is.” The kid’s voice came out quietly at first, almost from disuse, but quickly gained confidence. “No one’s scarier.” Keith narrowed his eyes at that, but couldn’t help but feel slightly more at ease. He sounded human enough.

            “Scary? You look like you’re a six-year-old in a Halloween costume.” Keith spat at the monster. The boy looked mock offended, and put a hand to his mouth in shock.

            “I’m seven first-of-all, and second, what you don’t find these scary?” The monster spread out his fingers and turned the back of his hand to Keith. Long, sharp black claws were stretched out in front of him. Keith swallowed but remained still and proud. “Or these?” The monster added placing one of his fingers in his mouth and moving the side of his mouth away to reveal rows of blade-like, white sharp teeth. Keith shook his head.

            “Not even a little scary.” He responded calmly, impressing himself with his collectedness. The other boy frowned and crossed his arms.

            “I’ve never met a human as stupid as you, or any human really. What’s your name?” The monster shifted topics effortlessly, like they were just wo friends hanging out. It caught Keith off guard.

            “Um… Keith” The monster wrinkled his nose.

            “What a human name. Not nearly as cool as mine. I’m Lance, like the sharp thingy.” Lance flashed a toothy grin at this, sticking out his hand. Keith blinked down at it like it was a gun being pointed at him. “Don’t humans shake hands like this?” Lance frowned like he had done something wrong, and Keith instantly felt bad. He clasped the outstretched hand and shook it. It was surprisingly warm, and Lance’s skin was soft. Lance’s grin was returned when Keith shook his hand. Keith decided it was time he got some answers, if he was going to fight the guy after all.

            “Do you live under my bed???” Keith blurted out untactfully. Lance laughed, it was melodious and unlike any laugh Keith had ever heard, like that of the sound of bells. The monster’s tail continued to swish back and forth. It looked odd against his otherwise normal dress, black pants and shirt, nothing special.

            “Yup! I spend my life under your bed just hanging out.” Lance responded, his eyes twinkling.

            “Really???” Keith was a little disturbed at the thought that someone was living under his bed this whole time.

            “No stupid I just come out through there sometimes.” Lance explained, beginning to gaze around Keith’s room. He walked over to one of Keith’s shelves, his steps as light as if he was walking on glass, and inspected the contents on it.

            “Like in Monster’s Inc?” Keith asked, the movie instantly coming to mind at Lance’s words.

            “What’s that?” Lance responded flatly. Keith gawked at him. He thought every kid knew that movie, I guess not monsters, Keith thought.

            “It’s nothing, so do you like eat kids or something?” Keith questioned, bluntly. If was an honest question, but the way Lance looked at him was one of horror.

            “Ew! Why would we do that!?” Lance exclaimed, his tail stiffening and sticking straight up behind him. He was kinda like a dog, Keith realized.

            “I don’t know, sometimes movie monsters do that.”

            “Well I’m not from the movies. Why? Do you eat humans?” Lance quirked an eyebrow and Keith couldn’t help but laugh. This entire situation was getting ridiculous. Lance opened his mouth like he wanted to say something else, but suddenly Keith heard footsteps coming up his stairs. He spun around towards his door.

            “Keith? Is that you making all that noise? Go to bed rascal.” Keith’s father’s tired voice drifted through the door.

            “Sorry, Dad” Keith murmured back as the footsteps began to lead away. Keith turned around quickly to see nothing but his bed looming in front of him. Lance was gone. “…Lance?” Keith whispered into the dark, there was no response.

            Days passed and Keith couldn’t forget his experience. He had told Pidge the next day at school what had happened, but she, of course, didn’t believe him without any proof. Keith stayed up as late as he could every night in hopes of seeing the monster, but it was to no avail. An entire week passed and Keith decided that this time, he wasn’t going to fall asleep at all, no giving up. He settled himself on the floor in front of his bed, and waited.

            It must have been midnight when Keith heard rustling coming from beneath the bed. “Lance?” Keith whispered in the direction of the noise. Suddenly, Lance himself slunk out from under the bed frame, pulling himself upward into a sitting position and blinking at Keith in the dark with those blue oceans for eyes. He was wearing the same black clothes Keith remembered and nothing else was different either. “You came back!” Keith exclaimed at the boy, a grin spreading across his lips.

            “Had to eventually.” Lance murmured, there was a nervous look on his face and Keith didn’t really understand why.

            “Now we have to fight.” Keith stated as he rose to his feet.

            “What!??? Why?” Lance scrambled to his feet as well, his eyes widening in panic.

            “Because Pidge said I had to.” Keith bluntly said once again. She had said he couldn’t do it, so of course he had to prove her wrong.

            “What in hell’s name is a pidge?” Lance frantically responded.

            “Pidge is my friend, and don’t worry, it will be fun.” Keith put his hands up and readied himself into a stance. Realization crossed the monster’s face.

            “Oh, you mean like play fight? Okay, I can do that.” A smug look spread across his lips as he didn’t wait for Keith’s response. Lance charged forward and grabbed onto Keith’s shirt. Keith was caught off guard as Lance pulled the two of them backwards to the floor, so Lance would take the blunt of the impact. With Keith now stunned on top of him, Lance spun him around and pinned him to the floor, effectively trapping Keith beneath him. Keith gawked at the boy for a second.

            “No fair, I wasn’t ready!” He whined at the younger boy. With that, Keith made a movement to switch their positions, but miscalculated the position of the bed. As he spun Lance around the boy’s face smacked right into the bedpost that had been beside them. Panicked, Keith climbed off of him. “Are you okay!?” Keith asked frantically. Lance rubbed at his mouth and sat up. He frowned and made a grossed out face, before opening his mouth and reaching into it. With little effort, Keith watched as he plucked out one of his fangs, and examined it in his hand.

            “Whoa I lost a tooth.” Lance stated, unfazed. He held out his hand for Keith to see. Relieved that his new friend seemed mostly unharmed, Keith crept forward. The tooth looked like that of a dog’s, or maybe a snake or something. It was long and thin and looked like it had edges like that of a knife. Keith nodded, impressed. “Want it?” Lance asked, a smug look coming over his face again. Keith stared at him for a few moments.

            “Really? I can have it?” Keith grinned. Lance nodded and plopped the tooth into Keith’s now outstretched hand. Keith examined it more closely, extatically. It really was one of the coolest things he had ever seen.

            The two spent the rest of the night just talking and play fighting. The monster was incredibly fun to talk to, even if their talks sometimes resulted in more fighting. Keith was thoroughly enjoying himself, when dawn came. The first rays of light had barely begun to drift into his window when Lance leapt to his feet.

            “I gotta go.” He muttered, and before Keith could get a word in, the boy slinked under the bed and shimmied out od sight. The last thing Keith saw of him was his sharp-looking tail disappearing under the bed.

            The next day at the playground, Keith tried to show his prize to Pidge. But the science-nerd wasn’t having it. “It looks like a dog’s tooth at best.” The younger girl had claimed, scrunching up her noise as she examined it. She pushed her round glasses up the bridge of her noise and handed the tooth back to Keith. “Doesn’t prove you have a monster.” Keith was exasperated that she wouldn’t believe him, but it hardly mattered. He had a new friend living under his bed and nothing would ruin that.

            Keith would wake himself up every night to talk to Lance. It might take a while, but Lance usually made himself known after not a lot of time. The two would spend the night together, just chatting and laughing. Keith’s father didn’t understand why Keith looked exhausted every day. But the fun couldn’t last, Keith soon realized, as one night, when Lance crawled out from beneath the bed, he seemed, off.

            “Hey, Keith?” Lance asked as he shuffled closer to the older boy. Keith looked up from where he had been demonstrating the amazing abilities of a new action figure he had gotten.

            “Yeah?”

            “We’re friends, right? Like really good friends?” Lance asked rather nervously. Keith looked up at the taller boy with a frown. He thought about it for a moment, yes of course they were friends, but with Lance, it was different.

            “Sorta, I feel like we’re something else.” Keith responded plainly, tossing his action figure to the side. A very sad look crossed over Lance’s face, and he nodded.

            “Yeah, you’re right. We’re too different to be friends anyway.” Lance began moving towards the bed and Keith froze. That wasn’t what he meant but the words got tripped up on his tongue. How was he supposed to describe their relationship? He had no idea. He liked Lance, they were friends, but it was also something different. How could he put it into words?

            Keith didn’t in time. Lance had disappeared beneath the bed before Keith had a chance to say anything. And that was the last time he saw him. Every night Keith would wake up and wait for his friend, but he never saw a thing. The days where he stayed up started to become few and far between, and still, Lance never came back. Keith grew older. Even though he still had the tooth, he started to doubt if it had come from a monster at all. As he matured, the memories started to seem more and more like dreams.

***

            Keith was leaving for college. He had gotten into the Garrison, an elite school that he had dreamed of attending since he was little. He had finally packed up all his things and now stood, for the last time, in his childhood room. It was early morning, so early, in fact, the sun hadn’t even come up yet. He wanted to have time to explore the campus before he had to actually be there. Keith sighed, and took one last look around his room. He stopped at his bed. A faint memory swirled into his head of late night talks and play fighting. Keith bit his lip, contemplating the word that was at the tip of his tongue. It was stupid, but it wouldn’t matter if he did it, right? Keith took a deep breath, staring intently at the bed.

            “…Lance?” Of course, there was no response. It was a childhood fantasy, an imaginary friend he used to have. Keith turned on his heels, ready to walk out of the room, when a sliding door caught his attention. His closet? Had he imagined it?

            A tall, lean figure stepped out from inside the dark closet, one with glowing blue eyes and smooth, caramel skin. He wore a black crop-top, that showed off more skin than one would anticipate, and black, skinny pants. Two, blue horns swirled out of his ruffled brown hair, giving him a demonic silhouette. A tail slinked out from behind him and flicked back and forth. A Cheshire grin spread across his lips as he put his clawed hand on his hip. Keith’s monster was back, and he’d just come out of the closet.


End file.
